Bryce G. Hoffman

BRYCE G. HOFFMAN is an award-winning writer, speaker and consultant. From 1998 to 2014, he covered the global automobile industry for newspapers in California and Michigan. As the Ford beat reporter for The Detroit News, he had a front-row seat for the events chronicled in his bestselling book, American Icon, which was released in 2012. American Icon became a manual for leaders and Hoffman left journalism to help companies large and small understand and apply the management secrets he learned from Ford and other companies. He has been honored by the Society of American Business Editors and Writers, the Society of Professional Journalists, the Associated Press, and others for his coverage of Ford and is one of the world's foremost authorities on the automaker. He lives in Fenton, Michigan.

Are you running your company like Evillene, the Wicked Witch of the West, ran her sweatshop in The Wiz? Remember her? She’s the enormous, whip-cracking boss lady who sang the song “Don’t nobody bring me no bad news” in the Motown adaptation of The Wizard of Oz:
If we're going to be buddiesBetter bone up on the rules‘Cause don’t nobody bring me no bad newsYou can be my best of friendsAs opposed to payin’ duesBut don't nobody bring me no bad news
Sadly, that is the same at

Earlier this week, the folks at Merriam-Webster chose culture as their “Word of the Year” for 2014. They picked it because of how frequently it was looked up this year compared to previous years, and I’m glad they did — because culture is a word that business leaders need to think about a lot more.
The arbiters of American English at Merriam-Webster define culture as “a way of thinking, behaving, or working that exists in a place or organization (such as a business).” Or, as m

I’m not a big fan of nuclear war (though, as a child of the ‘80s, I do have a soft spot in my heart for post-apocalyptic films). But in this age of Vladimir Putin geopolitical instability, I find the recent revelations about the dismal state of our strategic nuclear forces distressing, and am relieved to hear that Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel is doing something about it.
And I want to help. That’s why I am suggesting that, as Hagel and his team begin this long overdue restructuring of Ame

I just got back from a vacation in England. I spent most of it London, where my wife and I relied on the ubiquitous black cabs to get around to the various historical sites, museums, theaters and restaurants that filled our days and nights in this resurgent capitol. But when we headed north — to “The North” — we traded our black cab for a black Ford Galaxy. It not only proved a good fit for our trip to the land of my ancestors, but also served as a powerful reminder that Ford Motor Company is no

Last month, I conducted a webinar on three of the most important lessons companies can learn from Ford’s epic turnaround. During that session, I got a number of great questions from the participants. One of the best was this: How important is a mission statement when it comes to establishing or changing a company's culture? I answered by saying that it is extremely important. So important, in fact, that I want to elaborate on the reasons why.
But first, let me talk about what I don’t

Today, a lot of companies in a lot of different sectors are talking a lot about the “customer experience.” At fassforward Consulting Group, we think about this a little differently. I recently sat down with my colleague Tara Paluck, who heads up this part of our practice, to find out more about this important area and why we refer to it as the “human experience.” You can watch a video of that interview, or read this edited transcript:
BH: Tara, you’ve been doing a lot of work

When I was working on my book, American Icon: Alan Mulally and the Fight to Save Ford Motor Company back in 2011, he shared with me some notes he made for himself shortly after he arrived in Dearborn in September 2006. At the top of one of the sheets of paper, he had written "Alan Legacy." Below that, he listed his personal goals — the things he hoped to achieve before leaving Ford.

As I read about the unravelling of Iraq this weekend, I came across this interview with a retreating Iraqi soldier who offered a powerful case for why leadership matters:“I fought side by side with Americans. Their military has leaders that tell the soldiers what the plan is, and fight. We don’t. There were many more terrorists in Fallujah and the fight was over in a month. (Mosul) wouldn’t have been a big problem if we had leaders.”Read more here: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/06/14/230400/ir

I spoke to a group of Ford dealers in Florida today, several of whom expressed real anxiety about Alan Mulally’s retirement and Mark Fields’ promotion to CEO of the iconic automaker. They are afraid. I told them they shouldn’t be.
Mulally’s retirement from Ford Motor Company is no cause for worry. Rather, it represents a powerful proof point of just much Ford’s culture has changed under his leadership.
Orderly transfers of power are almost unheard of in Detroit. They are even more ra